View full sizeCourtesy of John HaightJohn Haight, 56, (left) is among 19 recipients nationwide this year of a Carnegie Medal for pulling his neighbor out of the Rogue River in June 2011 and reviving him. Haight is pictured with his daughter, Jennifer Thelen, and her son, Coen, while vacationing in Hawaii in 2011.

John Haight is going in for surgery Thursday after a year of therapy proved ineffective for a toe laden with bone chips.

The pain from the Rogue River resident's shattered toe as well as an injured arm and shoulder has been unbearable at times, he said. But it's eased when he remembers that he was hurt while saving his neighbor's life.

"Staring death in the face is nothing glamorous and I'm paying the toll," said Haight, 56, a sales manager for a trailer company. "But I'll sleep and wake up with the pain as opposed to letting someone die."

Haight is among 19 recipients nationwide this year -- and the only one from Oregon -- of a Carnegie Medal, which recognizes acts of heroism. He is being honored for pulling Leonard Wrobel out of the Rogue River on June 29, 2011, and resuscitating him after the older neighbor slipped into the water and was knocked unconscious.

Haight said he was two days away from a vacation to Hawaii when he and his nephew were mowing the lawn and heard a woman screaming that evening. They scanned the river to see what was wrong and spotted Wrobel floating face-down.

Haight told his nephew to call 9-1-1 while he, clad in a long-sleeve shirt, pants and boots, ran down to a dock and jumped in.

It was a split-second decision, Haight said, but by the time he hit the swift, frigid water, he had lost sight of Wrobel.

Haight said he kept swimming downstream and eventually glimpsed Wrobel's shirt. He grabbed his neighbor's wrist with one hand and paddled to a nearby concrete slab.

Haight said he lifted Wrobel out of the water and onto the slab, injuring his right bicep and shoulder in the process. His neighbor wasn't breathing and had no pulse.

Haight performed CPR, a skill he had learned about 20 years earlier in the trucking industry but hadn't ever used, and managed to revive Wrobel.

The two stayed on the slab until emergency crews used a raft to bring them both to the riverbank, about 2 1/2 hours after he dived in, Haight said.

Wrobel spent about three weeks recovering in a hospital. Haight said medical personnel estimated the neighbor had gone about five to 10 minutes without oxygen.

Haight said he visits Wrobel often, and the 71-year-old usually greets him with a smile and a cold beer.

"He called me his hero," Haight said. "That truly does mean a lot."

Haight, a Medford High School graduate, has a son and a daughter. He said he learned Tuesday about the award, which comes with a $5,000 grant. He plans to help fund swim lessons for children who can't afford it.

"My swim lessons helped save a life," he said. "Who knows what it could do for others?"